Guest editorial: Obama, Congress must get it right

In 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., famously told the National Journal that "The single most important thing Republicans want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

It didn't work. On Tuesday, the American voters narrowly gave Obama another four years in office, rejecting the Republican candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Now they have no choice but to rethink their goals.

And there's reason to believe they know it. Not so famously, McConnell followed his threat to Obama's presidency with, "If he's willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it's not inappropriate for us to do business with him."

Surely, that is what Americans would want them to do. After more than $1 billion was spent by the two major party candidates on the presidential campaign; after driving Americans to distraction with their often-ugly TV commercials and robo-calls; after debates, rallies, stump speeches and, sometimes, outright lies - the nation is essentially right where it was when McConnell offered that challenge.

When the new Congress convenes in January 2013, it'll look a like the lame-duck Congress of 2012. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be back in the Senate majority leader's office, and McConnell will be back in the minority leader's office. John Boehner, R-Ohio, will be leader of Republicans as speaker of the House again, and Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will lead Democrats again.

Yet change is inevitable. We simply cannot afford another four years like the past four years.

What we learned from this election on Tuesday is that this remains a closely divided nation. No one, especially not Obama, can claim a mandate - unless, perhaps, the mandate is to work together to solve the most pressing problems of the country.

If there's no mandate, there is certainly opportunity . . . for Obama, for Reid, for McConnell, for Boehner, for Pelosi.

They have been given another chance by the electorate, an electorate that has made it crystal clear that it is fed up with the inability of the men and women they have trusted with considerable power in Washington, D.C., to work together.

They won't have to wait until January to demonstrate that they've learned the right lessons from the past four years. Awaiting their action when they get back to the nation's capital is the "fiscal cliff." The mandatory across-the-board cuts in the federal budget hanging over their heads is the result of a gimmick agreed to by Republicans and Democrats alike to force them to take action on the out-of-control budget.

The refusal of both sides to compromise regardless of the consequences has gotten us to this very dangerous point. Republicans in Congress were even willing to risk the nation's credit rating by refusing to allow an increase in the national debt to prove their point.

Obama doesn't have to worry about re-election any more. Now he needs to worry about his legacy; now he has to worry about the kind of nation he is going to leave to his successor.

It's time for both sides to get to work . . . together.

ServingOshkosh Wisconsin

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Guest editorial: Obama, Congress must get it right

In 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., famously told the National Journal that 'The single most important thing Republicans want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term